Did the release of Paris Hilton from a Los Angeles jail merit the media attention it received? That question reached a critical point for one US cable news presenter when she refused to read out the lead item on a popular morning breakfast show.

"I have an apology," presenter Mika Brzezinski told the host of MSNBC's Morning Joe programme, "and that is for the lead story. I hate this story. I don't think it should be the lead."

Taunted by her co-presenters, Brzezinski proceeded to tear up the script, attempting to set light to it before finally putting it through a shredder. "You have changed the world," mocked host Joe Scarborough."Yes I have," replied Brzezinski, "at least my world."

The exchanges, broadcast a few hours after the early morning release of the celebrity heiress, have become an internet hit, with an edited clip of the show viewed 250,000 times on YouTube.

Throughout the exchanges Brzezinski appeared angry at the inclusion of the item as the lead in the morning's news and at the action she is taking. At times she held her head in her hands, at others she appeared close to tears, her face bearing an exasperated expression.

Other news that morning included criticism of George Bush's Iraq policy from a senior Republican. But editors at MSNBC had other priorities.

"My producer is not listening to me," said Brzezinski, brandishing the script in her hands, "he's put it as the lead."

She took a cigarette lighter from a fellow presenter and tried, but failed, to set light to the sheaf of papers.

"I'm done with the Paris Hilton story," she declared. "I won't do it."

Having failed to set fire to the script, she started to tear it up before offering it to a colleague. "Will you burn this for me, please?" she asked. "I'm about to snap." When he refused, she took it back and rose from her desk, saying, "I'm shredding it."

As she returned to her seat, Scarborough asked the producer to run footage of Hilton leaving jail. When the cameras returned to the studio Brzezinski was shown with her head in her hands.

"I just don't believe in covering that story, especially not as the lead story in a newscast when you have a day like today," she said. Brzezinski was brought up to consider weightier matters than a pampered socialite. Her father, Zbigniew Brzezinski, served as national security adviser under President Jimmy Carter.